Author's infos

Introduction:

A letter from the assylum

To my dear friend:

Thank you so much for all these years you have written to me. I’m hoping that this finds you well, and that you are happy. I also hope we can meet someday soon. You’ve always wondered why I’m here, and I have been sort of reticent about telling you. Not because I’ve done anything really wrong, but some people have funny notions of what is wrong or right. But we’ve been pen-pals all this time and so, since this will probably be my last letter to you, I figured you should know.

I won’t send this out for a few days yet, because I want to do everything just right, but you will get it. Anyway, you’ve always wanted to peek into my mind, and now you have the chance.

How do I say this? You’ve just entered my world. The minute you picked this up and began reading it, you put your mind in my hands. So now, here we are, and where do we go from here? I have the perfect opportunity to help you and teach you, or I could take your mind and bend it and twist it around my little finger, and you could walk away as demented as they say I am.

One thing I’d like to know is: who are “they”? I mean, you hear that all the time; they say this… or they say that… get what I mean? If you haven’t guessed, I have decided to embrace your mind and make it mine, I hope you enjoy the ride.

At times, I feel this overwhelming urge to break those things entrusted to me. That’s why they don’t let me have much here. I once had a gerbil here. It was a cute little rat, which was it’s own fault. I ran a few small tests on it, to see what would happen. I wanted it to learn to talk to others like it did me. So I decided not to feed it until it did. But after a few days I got interested in another experiment. I wanted to find out if I could train it to do tricks. You can’t train an animal without using food to reward it. Right? You see, I know how it is, I’m not crazy. Right? It wouldn’t do anything!!

I decided to try out what they have tried with me. I tied it down real good, on it’s back. I took my lamp cord and cut it down so I could use it. I bared some wire. I took a pencil and held it in the gerbil’s mouth. I plugged in the cord and applied the ends to the gerbil. Believe it or not, that gerbil bit right through that pencil. Then it wouldn’t move anymore

They took away my lamp, my pencils and my gerbil to punish me. I don’t know why, but they did.

Way back, when I was a boy, I wanted to be a Vet., but the patients kept dying. After a while, no one would bring me their pets, so I started to look for strays. In a small town, that is not easy, and I ran out of patients there too. But then I decided to be a people doctor. Momma turned white when I told her. I was seven then. She told me I couldn’t, and then she started screaming at me and hitting me. She told me: don’t you dare. I laughed and went to my room. Parents are so funny.

Momma and Daddy wouldn’t let me go anywhere for a long time. But I snucked out the window in my room sometimes and went to my laboratory. I read books on anatomy and found a doll in somebody’s garbage. I drew all the body parts on, and pretended she was my patient. I couldn’t tell if it was all right or not, though. So I knew I would have to find out.

Finally, when I was nine, I got my chance. Sally, a girl at school, wanted to see my lab. So after school, we snucked out there. I asked her if she wanted to be a part of an experiment. After I was done, she didn’t move anymore either. But I had everything right on the doll. I was so happy!

That was when I came here. I got some of the people mad at me. They were so jealous that I am so much smarter than they are. Even the doctor doesn’t like me much. But I can fix him. And before I leave here I will, too. I need to start soon, though. I think I will experiment on him and find out how boys are different inside. You know, under the skin. I found a scalpel and it’s hidden in my mattress now. It should do really good.

Some people say I’m crazy, but I’m not. I’m smart. I told everyone what they wanted to hear, as soon as I found out what it was. But now I can prove it. Next Tuesday is my twenty-first birthday. So Monday night I have to settle up with the doctor. Because Tuesday I get out. I already have a bus ticket, my friend. You’ll be happy to know that I’ve decided to come and see you first.